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AMARNA-EES
Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · amulet
Amulet of Sekhmet
Description
The lioness Sekhmet and the cat Bastet were regarded as being the wild and tame aspects, respectively, of the same unpredictable goddess. Bastet is shown seated, holding her rattle (sistrum) that made music that calmed Sekhmet, transforming her into a gentle cat.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A turquoise-blue faience amulet shaped like a seated/crouching feline-goddess figure with arms held close to the body.
The object is a vertically oriented, molded faience amulet depicting a cat-like deity standing or seated on a rectangular base. The head has feline ears and a stylized face with prominent eye shapes; a reddish-brown line or detailing is visible along the face/muzzle area. The body is decorated with incised/molded lines and panels that read as garments or ceremonial striping. The arms are brought forward across the torso, with the hands/paws holding or touching a central element. A greenish glaze with darker turquoise areas covers most of the figure; some areas show wear and surface pitting typical of glazed ceramic. No clear hieroglyphic inscription, cartouche, or other readable text is visible on the front view provided.
religious
unknown
good
Deities
Sekhmet
Materials
Faienceglaze
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
sign of "life" incised on rear of openwork throne
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 135831 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.